I think the notion of having a compass etc is fine, but there needs to be a heavy visual clue presented when the user first interacts with the compass button/icon. Having the area that can be moved visually change when the mouse is over that button/icon and possibly changing the representation to a more identifiable dragged entity like a desktop icon may be helpful. So to take that notion a bit closer to home, selecting the compass layers over an icon which when you move the mouse the icon follows it, much like a users desktop. If you like you can show extra verbiage when it is selected for dragging, just to get the point across.

Jeff
Thursday, May 10, 2007

Deleting …Approving …

An additional strategy is to mimic the Windows paradigm, as most people already know they can drag windows around the desktop by clicking in the title bar and dragging the window around.

The project I'm working on at the moment has a lot of popup dialogs, and each dialog has a clearly defined title bar. Whenever the user hovers over the title bar, the cursor changes to a compass icon, indicating that the window can be moved.

If drag and drop is critical to current functionality (rather than just being an additional feature) then we use explanatory text somewhere.

Our user groups have said that they found the title bar mechanism intuitive and unobtrusive.

Sam
Thursday, May 10, 2007

Deleting …Approving …

Have a look at how netvibes.com does it. It is very intuitive

drag me
Thursday, May 10, 2007

Deleting …Approving …

I have tried to do this a lot of different ways and have discovered through usability testing that typical Internet users find "draggable" interfaces terribly confusing. None of my users (Fortune 500 executives) have ever seen draggable elements on the web and need to be taught a completely new way to interact with the page. Once they learn how to drag something they try to drag around everything else and are frustrated when they can't.

If your users are early adopters I think Netvibes has a great implementation.

If you are dealing with "normal people" you might want to rethink if drag and drop is really necessary.

Alex
Thursday, May 10, 2007

Deleting …Approving …

Lot's of great suggestions here for making drag-and-drop discoverable by the most users. However, much as I love seeing drag-and-drop make its way to web apps, it has to be acknowledged that drag-and-drop is functionally an expert short-cut. You'll need a menu-and-dialog (or menu-and-key) means to execute the same feature, if not for your "normal" users, than for accessibility reasons.

I totally agree with Alex and Michael, although I'll proffer that event "expert users" find drag and drop tedious. In fact just the thought of a solely drag and drop UI gives me RSI. Especially with web apps, there's always that moment when you miss the "draggable" and end up selecting all the text on the page. Lame.